Leon Roulette, 1959

Leon Roulette was born in Southern California.

Early in his youth, he found himself especially interested nature and read all he could about naturalist like John Muir who captured young Leon’s imagination.

He received private art instruction at an early age, and eventually graduated California State University of Long Beach with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts.

Johannes Vermeer | A young woman standing at a virginal, 1670-1672

The richly dressed lady playing a virginal stands in a prosperous Dutch home with paintings on the wall, a marble-tiled floor, and a skirting of locally produced Delft blue and white tiles.

The two paintings on the wall behind her cannot be identified with certainty.

The small landscape on the left and the painting decorating the lid of the virginal resemble works by Johannes Vermeer’s Delft colleague Pieter Groenewegen.

Johannes Vermeer | A young woman standing at a virginal, 1670-1672 (detail) | National Gallery London

Ford Smith | Abstract painter

As the son of an Air Force serviceman stationed in a small Japanese village, Ford's artistic sensibilities began to take root under the nurturing eye of an elderly Japanese painter when he was just twelve.

After graduating from the University of Mississippi with a BFA in painting, Ford moved to Atlanta, Georgia where he realized a natural talent for photography.

During the late 70's and 80's Ford established his reputation as Atlanta's premier fashion and commercial photographer.

Ernest Ange Duez | Genre painter

Ernest Ange Duez - also known as Ernest-Ange Duez and Ernest Duez, (8 March 1843 - 5 April 1896) was a French painter of genre scenes, portraits, landscapes and religious subjects.

Although he was an admirer of Édouard Manet and owned paintings by Manet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Berthe Morisot, his palette was more subdued than that of most of the Impressionists, and his technique more controlled.

His style, between that of the conservative Paris Salon and Impressionism, has been called juste milieu, and he has been compared to Alfred Stevens, Giuseppe De Nittis and James Tissot.

Edward Cucuel | Impressionist painter

Born in San Francisco, Edward Alfred Cucuel (1875-1954) was an Impressionist painter of genre and figures in landscapes, often using his family members for models rather than professionals.

A specialty was using a vibrant palette and rich impasto to depict women in sun-dappled landscape settings.

At the age of fourteen, he enrolled at the School of Design in San Francisco, and three years later, in 1892, he went to Paris and studied at the Academie Julian.

In 1893, he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as a student of Jean-Leon Gerome.